CHAPTER II.

DESCENT.

Descent of kinship, origin and primitive form.
Matriliny in Australia.
Relation to potestas,
position of widow, etc. Change of rule of
descent; relation to
potestas, inheritance and local organisation.

In discussions of the origin and evolution of kinship
organisations, we are necessarily concerned not only
with their forms but also with the rules of descent
which regulate membership of them. Until recently
the main questions at issue were twofold: (1)
the priority or otherwise of female descent; (2) the
causes of the transition from one form of descent
to another. Of late the question has been raised
whether in the beginning hereditary kinship groups
existed at all, or whether membership was not rather
determined by considerations of an entirely different
order. Dr Frazer, who has enunciated this view,
maintains that totemism rests on a primitive theory
of conception, due to savage ignorance of the facts
of procreation.[10] But his theory is based exclusively
on the foundation of the beliefs of the Central Australians
and seems to neglect more than one important point
which goes to show that the Arunta have evolved their
totemic system from the more ordinary hereditary form.
Whether this be so or not, it is difficult to see how
any idea of kinship could arise from such a condition
of nescience. If we take the analogous case of
the nagual or “individual totem” there
seems to be no trace of any belief in the kinship of
those who have the same animal as their nagual, but
are otherwise bound by no tie of relationship.
Yet if Dr Frazer’s theory were correct, this
is precisely what we ought to find.

This is, however, no reason for rejecting the general
proposition that kinship, at its origin, was not hereditary;
or, more exactly, that the beginnings of the kinship
groups found at the present day may be traced back
to a point at which the hereditary principle virtually
disappears, although the bond of union and perhaps
the totem name already existed. If, as suggested
by Mr Lang, man was originally distributed in small
communities, known by names which ultimately came to
be those of the totem kins, we may suppose that daily
association would not fail to bring about that sense
of solidarity in its members which it is found to